1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to positioning systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for enhancing a global positioning system using terrain model information.
2. Description of the Background Art
A positioning receiver for the Global Positioning System (GPS) uses measurements from several satellites to compute position in three dimensions (i.e., latitude, longitude, and altitude). In general the process for determining position requires signals to be received and processed of at least four satellites in order to solve for the four unknowns of three-dimensional position as well as a common mode timing error.
Most commercial GPS receivers offer a fixed altitude mode for situations where the altitude of the receiver is available from external means (for example input by the user as a parameter). Provided the externally supplied altitude value is accurate, the receiver can compute an accurate latitude and longitude using signals from only three satellites. Any error in the specified altitude will, however, cause an error of the same magnitude in computed horizontal position. The fixed altitude mode is therefore very useful in applications such as navigation at sea since sea level is both uniform over large regions and well known through published computer models. In terrestrial applications, however, a fixed altitude solution has limited utility since the operator cannot always know or supply an accurate altitude.
Recently, GPS has been proposed as a location technology solution for wireless devices such as cellular telephones. In these systems, the wireless device is typically in communication with a terrestrial transceiver (radio tower) that is within a few miles or kilometers of the wireless device. It may be feasible to model the region covered by the terrestrial transceiver by making use of the known altitude at the radio tower. In this case, this altitude can be introduced into the GPS processing to allow for a fixed altitude solution.
The fixed altitude technique, while useful in some situations, cannot address the general problem of determining position over uneven and/or unknown terrain.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method and apparatus for enhancing a GPS receiver such that the receiver provides an accurate three-dimensional position using the signals from only three satellites.